Over the moon

Dark Side of the Moon: The Magnificent Madness of the American Lunar Quest

by Gerard DeGroot

Vintage, £8.99

In the late 1950s, shortly after Russia had launched its Sputnik and triggered a US-Soviet rocket race to the Moon, the Americans' space chief Wernher von Braun was buttonholed by a reporter. 'What do you think American astronauts will find when they land there?' he asked. Von Braun's reply was succinct: 'Russians.' As snappy answers go, it was a cracker. And, according to Gerard DeGroot in this sardonic, adroitly written history of the US lunar programme, it was typical of the man.

Like the Devil, von Braun had all the best tunes and played them tirelessly to bully America into space. Soviet rocket technology threatened the West and its exploits were damaging America's scientific reputation, von Braun would recite again and again: act now or the future will be red.

Thus the Apollo programme was established by a nation, says DeGroot, that was panicked first by von Braun and then by the 'manipulative, mendacious, scheming and untrustworthy' John F Kennedy. The latter used Russia's space achievements to undermine Eisenhower's republican administration (which was sensibly cautious about manned space exploration) and win the presidency.

In fact, it turned out the Russians were far behind the US in space expertise, a fact Kennedy only discovered in office. It was too late by then and the space monster he had unleashed began devouring money faster than any other federal programme. Kennedy might have stopped the rot, says DeGroot, but was assassinated. After that, 'the space programme became a homage to Kennedy and, as such, untouchable'.

The US lunar quest was, therefore, 'an immensely expensive distraction of little scientific or culture worth', a grand futility from which the US space agency Nasa has never recovered. It is hard to disagree with this assessment. DeGroot, a sharp and witty writer, has prepared his case assiduously, though for my taste he overstates it badly, wilfully ignoring the romance and chutzpah of what was, after all, the 20th-century's crowning human achievement. More to the point, Dark Side of the Moon lacks any primary sources or interviews and is, essentially, a cuttings job, albeit a clever, enjoyable one.